Elections: 5th Avenue Partners

Oliver Heald: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission if he will make a statement on progress by the Electoral Commission with its investigation into donations by 5th Avenue Partners.

Peter Viggers: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to him of 15 January 2007,  Official Report, column 791W. The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not intend to make any decision in relation to donations made to the Liberal Democrats by Fifth Avenue Partners Ltd. until it has received confirmation from both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service that legal proceedings would not be prejudiced by it doing so.

Elections: Local Government

Oliver Heald: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission if he will place in the Library a copy of the research and findings commissioned by the Electoral Commission from the British Market Research Bureau on perceptions of local elections.

Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it has placed in the Library a copy of the 2006 local elections and electoral pilot schemes report produced by the British Market Research Bureau. This material is also available on the Commission's website at:
	http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/files/dms/BMRBFINALREPRTJUNE2006_23028-17200_E_N_S_W_.pdf.

Exports: Defence

Harry Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what powers are available to enforce  (a) UN and  (b) EU sanctions on export of goods with military applications to Sudan; what reports he has received of the export of such goods by (i) Dallex Trade and (ii) Land Rover to Sudan; and if he will make a statement.

John Healey: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the enforcement authority for export licensing controls on military goods. An exporter attempting to export military goods from the UK to any destination without a valid export licence is committing an offence under Section 68 of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) 1979. The provisions of CEMA provide HMRC officers with wide ranging enforcement powers to investigate offences and to seize unlicensed. Should an investigation reveal sufficient evidence of an offence then the case will be referred to the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO). The RCPO will then consider whether to commence criminal proceedings.
	EU and UN arms embargoes prohibit the export of military goods to Sudan. Military goods are defined as all goods listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods, Transfer of Technology and Provision of Technical Assistance (Control) Order 2003. Non-military goods which may have a military application are not subject to export licensing controls and therefore HMRC enforcement powers do not apply.
	Section 18 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 provides that HMRC may not disclose information held in connection with a function of HMRC unless there is lawful authority. HMRC is therefore unable to disclose information in relation to specific campaigns.

Market in Financial Instruments Directive

Mark Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many EU member states have transposed the Market in Financial Instruments Directive into national legislation; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Balls: holding answer 9 May 2007
	As I said in my answer of 16 April 2007,  Official Report, columns 405-6W, the Commission currently reports that the UK, Ireland and Rumania have notified their transposition of both MiFID Directives. Lithuania has reported it has transposed the Level 1 MiFID Directive.
	This clearly leaves the majority of member states still to complete transposition. Timely implementation of MiFID is essential if firms are to have opportunity to prepare for launch in November and I have written to Commissioner McCreevy on this very subject urging him to maintain the pressure on member states.
	The Commission has asked all member states to confirm when they will complete transposition of the two MiFID directives and this information is available at:
	http://ec.europa.eu/internalmarket/securities/isd/mifid_implementation_en.htm.
	By the end of the summer, the majority of countries plan to have completed transposition.

Burma: Ethnic Groups

Stephen Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations she is making to the government of Burma on the targeting of civilians in Karen State.

Ian McCartney: We have repeatedly condemned the Burmese army's attacks on civilians in Karen State.
	I have raised the human rights situation regularly with the Burmese regime and other governments in the region. On 16 June 2006, I called in the Burmese Ambassador and on 5 July 2006 I wrote to the Burmese Foreign Minister, highlighting our many concerns. On 18 September 2006, I raised the serious human rights situation with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ambassadors, including the Burmese Ambassador, and on 4 December 2006 with the ASEAN Secretary-General. I have also raised Burma with the Governments of China, India, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea. I have discussed the human rights abuses taking place in Burma with Juan Mendez, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. I discussed Burma in detail with Ibrahim Gambari, the UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, on 15 November 2006, following his visit to the country. Most recently, I raised the human rights situation in Burma in my address to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 13 March and at the EU/ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Nuremberg on 15 March, in the presence of the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister. In addition, our Ambassador in Rangoon regularly raises human rights with the regime, most recently when he met the Burmese Ministers for Planning and Immigration and the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister on 5 January.
	On 23 April the EU Council of Ministers called for the Burmese regime to end the military campaign against civilians in conflict areas.
	We shall continue to take every opportunity to raise our concerns about all human rights violations in Burma.

Estonia: Russia

Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions she has had with the government of Estonia on that country's relations with Russia.

Geoff Hoon: The Estonian Foreign Minister briefed my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and other EU Foreign Ministers on Estonia's relations with Russia at the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council on 14 May. Our Ambassador in Tallinn has held more detailed discussions with the Estonian government on relations with Russia.

EU Aid: Politics and Government

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what  (a) her Department's and  (b) EU policy is on funding non-governmental organisations in other democratic countries which campaign actively against those countries' governments' policies; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is committed to promoting democratic values and principles, including a vibrant civil society.
	We recognise the vital role civil society plays in promoting human rights, democracy and good governance. We value the expertise which many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working to implement human rights possess and therefore work with them to encourage governments, including democratic ones, to meet international human rights standards.
	The FCO has a range of programme funds which aim to support its work on human rights. The merits of all funding requests are considered on a case by case basis. Further information can be found on the FCO website at:
	http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394988.
	The EU has a human rights and democracy programme, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). NGOs are eligible to bid for project funding. Information on the activities and actions of EIDHR is accessible at:
	http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/projects/eidhr/index_en.htm.
	To be able to provide the information required by my hon. Friend a more specific request is required. I have asked my hon. Friend to write to me with specific details of his interest in this issue and I will respond to him.

Saw Lee Reh Kyaw

Stephen Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports she has received on the execution of a Karenni humanitarian relief worker, Saw Lee Reh Kyaw, on 10 April.

Ian McCartney: We have seen reports about the death of Saw Lee Reh Kyaw, a member of the Free Burma Rangers. Officials from our Embassy in Rangoon do not have access to conflict areas and have not been able to investigate these reports further.
	I have raised the human rights situation regularly with the Burmese regime and other governments in the region. On 16 June 2006, I called in the Burmese Ambassador and on 5 July 2006 I wrote to the Burmese Foreign Minister, highlighting our many concerns. On 18 September 2006, I raised the serious human rights situation with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ambassadors, including the Burmese Ambassador, and on 4 December 2006 with the ASEAN Secretary-General. I have also raised Burma with the Governments of China, India, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea. I have discussed the human rights abuses taking place in Burma with Juan Mendez, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. I discussed Burma in detail with Ibrahim Gambari, the UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, on 15 November 2006, following his visit to the country. Most recently, I raised the human rights situation in Burma in my address to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 13 March and at the EU/ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Nuremberg on 15 March, in the presence of the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister. In addition, our Ambassador in Rangoon regularly raises human rights with the regime, most recently when he met the Burmese Ministers for Planning and Immigration and the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister on 5 January.

Sudan: International Relations

Louise Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations she has made to the government of  (a) Russia and  (b) China on their relationship with the government of Sudan.

Ian McCartney: We regularly discuss relations with Sudan, and the situation in Darfur, with the Chinese and Russian governments including at the UN. We want China and Russia to use their influence in Sudan to ensure the government of Sudan supports deployment of a joint African Union/UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, a lasting ceasefire and a renewed political process with rebels in Darfur. We gave this message to the Chinese government before President Hu's visit to Africa earlier this year.

Departments: Enodian

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what consultancy and research work her Department, including the Hayden Phillips review, has commissioned from the firm Enodian in the last 12 months; at what cost; and for what purpose.

Vera Baird: Since the Ministry of Justice was only formed on 9 May, my response refers to the former Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and those bodies which were formerly part of the Home Office which are now part of the new Department. In the past 12 months DCA commissioned Enodian to provide consultancy support as outlined as follows:
	Provision of a Business Change Manager to support the implementation of structural changes within Corporate Diversity Unit —(value £56,800).
	Support to the development of an implementation strategy for raising diversity awareness throughout DCA (value £7,350); and to the design and delivery of diversity leadership briefing for senior officials (value £8,000).
	Enodian have very recently been commissioned to provide organisational change management support to the Department's Commercial Group at an approximate cost of £12,000.
	The Review of the Funding of Political Parties and the current inter-party talks chaired by Sir Hayden Phillips are both independent of the Department. Enodian provided consultancy support and advice relating to the review (value £19,200) and subsequently have been engaged to lead the secretariat to the inter-party talks (at an expected value of between £32,000 and £40,000).
	No consultancy or research work was commissioned with Enodian by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform, the National Offender Management Service or HM Prison Service.

Electoral Administration Act 2006

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice if she will make a statement on the causes of the drafting errors in the Electoral Administration Act 2006 which have resulted in section 69(a) of the Act not being implemented; and what steps are being taken to remedy them.

Bridget Prentice: Section 69 of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 provides for electoral administrators with new powers to promote participation in the electoral process.
	There are no drafting errors in this section of the Act, and it was commenced in time for the May 3 2007 local elections.

Electoral Register: Armed Forces

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many service voters were registered to vote in each year since 1997 prior to the abolition of the designation of service voting.

Bridget Prentice: I should make clear that there has been no abolition of the service declaration as a means by which relevant individuals can register as an elector. The Representation of the People Act 2000 placed a time limit on the validity of- but did not abolish—a service declaration, but also provided relevant individuals the option of registering as a normal elector rather than as a service voter.
	Information on the number of individuals registered as electors under a service declaration prior to 2001 is not available. The Office for National Statistics figures confirm the number of individuals registered as service voters under a service declaration from this date is as follows.
	
		
			  Number 
			   England and Wales  Scotland  Great Britain 
			 16 February 2001 157,770 17,705 175,475 
			 1 December 2001 139,686 16,289 155,975 
			 1 December 2002 49,122 3,067 52,189 
			 2 December 2003 30,271 2,100 32,371 
			 2 December 2004 21,122 1,707 22,829 
			 3 December 2005 19,028 1,576 20,604 
			 4 December 2006 19,350 1,656 21,006

Prisons: Standards

Henry Bellingham: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what  (a) allowances and  (b) expenses are available to members of independent monitoring boards; what the total cost of payments was to independent monitoring board members of each prison establishment in each of the last four years; and if she will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: The total expenditure claimed by Independent Monitoring Board members in the last four years is:
	
		
			   £ 
			 2003-04 832,389 
			 2004-05 877,133 
			 2005-06 1,146,940 
			 2006-07 1,023,380 
		
	
	The request to provide the total cost for allowances and expenses for each of the establishments for the last four years can not be answered on the grounds of disproportionate cost.

Prisons: Swimming Pools

Philip Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many prisons have swimming pools for use by inmates; and if she will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Five prisons have swimming pools which are used by prisoners. They are at Holloway, Portland, Aylesbury Standford Hill and Blantyre House. Where operational circumstances permit, these pools are made available to local groups.

Morbidity and Mortality Statistics

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the  (a) morbidity and  (b) infant mortality rates for (i) gypsy, (ii) traveller and (iii) white British populations were in (A) 1987, (B) 1997 and (C) 2007.

Andy Burnham: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Gift Aid

Anne Milton: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on changes in the level of gift aid relief to charities.

Philip Dunne: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on changes in the level of gift aid relief to charities.

Edward Miliband: My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer and I have discussed the increase that we have seen in the resources going to charities through Gift Aid from £134 million to £750 million since 1997 and the need to build on this. We will be consulting the charitable sector in the coming months on measures to increase take-up of Gift Aid, improve the use of payroll giving and ensure greater awareness of how to give in a tax-effective way.

Gift Aid

Shailesh Vara: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the levels of gift aid to charities over the last two years.

Edward Miliband: In the last two years for which figures are available, the amount of money going to charities through Gift Aid has risen by £164 million from £586 million in 2003-04 to £750 million in 2005-06. This increase is higher than the total amount being paid under Gift Aid in 1996-97, which was just £134 million.

Social Exclusion

Lyn Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what assessment she has made of the balance of costs and benefits of intervening in the early years of a child' life to prevent social exclusion.

Hilary Armstrong: Early intervention is a guiding principle of the Social Exclusion Action Plan. This report highlighted the relative costs and benefits of a rigorously tested programme, the Nurse Family Partnership from the US that provides intensive home visiting services by health visitors to disadvantaged mothers from pregnancy until the child is two-years-old. The evaluation showed that for every $1 invested in the US programme, $5 is saved down the line. The Government are currently considering what can be learnt from this early intervention approach, with pilots of the programme being launched in 10 sites across England.

Delivery Unit

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 
	(1)  pursuant to the answer of 17 April 2007,  Official Report, column 537W, on the Delivery Unit, by what means the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit provides performance management in key delivery areas;
	(2)  pursuant to the answer of 17 April 2007,  Official Report, column 537W, on the Delivery Unit, for which key delivery areas the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit  (a) is providing performance management and  (b) has provided performance management in the last 12 months;
	(3)  pursuant to the answer of 17 April 2007,  Official Report, column 538W, on the Delivery Unit, which  (a) education,  (b) health,  (c) home affairs and  (d) social exclusion targets the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit is focusing on;
	(4)  pursuant to the answer of 17 April 2007,  Official Report, column 538W, on the Delivery Unit, in which areas the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit  (a) is facilitating cross government working and  (b) has facilitated cross government working within the last 12 months;
	(5)  on what projects the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit has started work in the last two months;
	(6)  what projects the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit is planning to work on over the next 12 months;
	(7)  on what projects the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit's  (a) justice team,  (b) asylum and migration team,  (c) local area agreement team,  (d) health team and  (e) education team are working.

Hilary Armstrong: The Prime Minister's Delivery Unit provides performance management by:
	Monitoring and reporting on delivery of the PM's top delivery and reform priorities.
	Identifying the key barriers to improvement and the action needed to strengthen delivery
	Strengthening departments' capacity to deliver, through capability reviews and sharing knowledge about best practice in delivery.
	Supporting the development of high quality PSA targets.
	Supporting stocktakes with the Prime Minister and Ministers.
	Areas of focus, presently and over the last year include work in the following areas:
	Health
	Education
	Home Affairs
	Communities and Local Government
	The Unit seeks to facilitate cross-government working in all these delivery areas. Over the last 12 months projects with a particular emphasis on cross-government working have been work on Local area agreements, respect, migration, social exclusion, delivery models and sustainable procurement.

Antisocial Behaviour: Young People

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of area curfew schemes for young people to combat criminal and anti-social behaviour.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	No assessment has been made of the success of local child curfew schemes under section 14 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 as they have not been used.
	However, between January 2004 and 1 April 2006, the police have used the power in section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act to disperse unruly groups in over 1,000 designated areas. In these areas, the police have succeeded in tackling underage drinking, joyriding, noise nuisance, the antisocial use of fireworks and the harassment and intimidation of residents.
	This is one example of our commitment to empowering local communities to tackle the blight of antisocial behaviour
	Section 30 also gives the police power to return to their homes young people under 16 who are unsupervised in public places in such areas after 9 pm. A young person may have a legitimate reason for being out at night unsupervised and the power to return young people to their homes is discretionary: it is not a curfew.
	This power protects young people from the risks posed by being unsupervised at night in public places within particular areas where they might get involved in, or become victims of, antisocial behaviour and helps the police to protect local communities from the alarm and distress that unsupervised young people can cause. Statistics for police exercising the power to return home young people under 16 are not available.
	The section 30 powers are not intended to be used in isolation, but should form part of an integrated response to tackling crime and disorder and antisocial behaviour in local areas. This includes work by YOTs to prevent young people getting involved in offending and antisocial behaviour.

Drug Interventions Programme

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) budget allocation is for each intensive DIP area in 2007-08; and if he will make a statement.

Vernon Coaker: Over £500 million has been invested as part of the Drug Interventions Programme since its inception in 2003. Record numbers of offenders are entering treatment through the programme and drug related acquisitive crime has reduced substantially. The DIP Main Grant, which is the key mechanism for allocating budgets to areas, is being allocated to intensive areas as in the following table.
	
		
			  Indicative intensive area budgets 2007-08 
			   Amount (£) 
			  London  
			 Brent 1,203,160 
			 Camden 1,191,678 
			 Croydon 1,001,817 
			 Ealing 988,786 
			 Enfield 759,292 
			 Greenwich 827,205 
			 Hackney 1,513,524 
			 Hammersmith and Fulham 1,118,469 
			 Haringey 1,243,541 
			 Hounslow 794,244 
			 Islington 1,333,277 
			 Kensington and Chelsea 1,008,137 
			 Lambeth 1,930,537 
			 Lewisham 1,378,639 
			 Newham 1,357,782 
			 Redbridge 663,812 
			 Southwark 1,655,389 
			 Tower Hamlets 1,415,658 
			 Waltham Forrest 925,327 
			 Wandsworth 1,034,156 
			 Westminster 2,016,350 
			   
			  Yorkshire and Humber  
			 Barnsley 807,613 
			 Bradford 1,926,287 
			 Calderdale 685,101 
			 Doncaster 1,317,965 
			 Kingston upon Hull 1,422,020 
			 Kirklees 1,219,885 
			 Leeds 2,737,443 
			 North East Lincolnshire 914,255 
			 North Lincolnshire 786,869 
			 Rotherham 756,064 
			 Sheffield 2,348,164 
			 Wakefield 1 ,094,559 
			   
			  East Midlands  
			 Leicester 1,558,632 
			 Northamptonshire 1,034,269 
			 Nottingham 1,794,787 
			 Nottinghamshire 2,339,136 
			   
			  East of England  
			 Luton 700,528 
			 Peterborough 774,057 
			   
			  South West  
			 Bristol 2,448,659 
			  North East  
			 Gateshead 627,944 
			 Hartlepool 609,010 
			 Middlesbrough 1,022,237 
			 Newcastle Upon Tyne 1,290,574 
			 Stockton 688,901 
			 Sunderland 782,823 
			   
			  West Midlands  
			 Birmingham 5,287,239 
			 Coventry 900,865 
			 Dudley 723,448 
			 Sandwell 1,003,679 
			 Solihull 407,131 
			 Walsall 642,837 
			 Wolverhampton 826,579 
			   
			  North West  
			 Bolton 1,136,727 
			 Bury 552,298 
			 Liverpool 2,154,389 
			 Manchester 2,848,647 
			 Oldham 890,494 
			 Rochdale 778,885 
			 Salford 771,116 
			 Stockport 664,181 
			 Tameside 823,130 
			 Trafford 693,096 
			 Wigan 1,046,181 
			   
			  South East  
			 Oxfordshire 1,195,115 
			 Reading 1,106,837 
			 Slough 854,146

Human Trafficking

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken to co-ordinate policies on combating the trafficking of women.

Vernon Coaker: The UK published an Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking on the 23 March. The Action Plan has a dedicated chapter on protection and assistance to adult victims of trafficking and pulls together all the work that is currently underway across Government and sets out what else we plan to do.

Human Trafficking

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what initiatives his Department is taking to combat people trafficking.

Vernon Coaker: The UK published an Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking on 23 March. The Action Plan sets out proposals for action in the four key areas of prevention, enforcement and prosecution, protection and assistance to adult victims and child trafficking. It pulls together all the work that is currently underway across Government and sets out what else we plan to do.

Armed Forces: Housing

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Forest of Dean of 7 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1981W, on armed forces housing, which Housing Directorate regions collected and managed the information in respect of maintenance and refurbishment of properties leased from Annington homes in each year since 5 November 1996.

Derek Twigg: When the Defence Housing Executive (DHE) was formed in 1995, it was arranged into 25 areas, 23 of which were in England and Wales, the area covered by the Annington Homes Ltd contract. When DHE became a Ministry of Defence agency in 1999, the number of areas reduced to 19 and they were grouped into nine regions, eight of them in England and Wales.
	As an agency, DHE's annual reports and accounts were published and a copy of each placed in the Library of the House. The reports included details of the regions in existence at that time, in England and Wales there were Northern, West, Central, Anglia, London, South West, South and South East.
	In April 2004, DHE merged with Defence Estates (DE), another MOD agency and, as of 1 April 2007, the number of regions in England and Wales reduced from eight to six to match the regions of the Housing Prime Contract—the contract to maintain service families accommodation in England and Wales.
	Each of the six regions is served by DE housing information centres, located in Warminster, Aldershot, High Wycombe, Thetford, Telford and York. Details of these regions are not included in DE's annual report and accounts.

Army: Costs

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 20 March 2007,  Official Report, column 50W, on the Army: costs, what the reasons were for the amount spent on maintenance of the property occupied by the Commander in Chief Land, broken down by main budget heading.

Derek Twigg: The figure previously provided under the generic heading "maintenance" covered a range of costs including the supply of replacement equipment, redecoration and the rectification of faults. A breakdown of the costs are shown in the table.
	
		
			  Description of maintenance  Cost (£) 
			 Legionella Water Sampling 476 
			 Property Repairs 399 
			 Toilet Repairs 118 
			 Electric Faults 46 
			 Internal Light Faults 339 
			 Boiler Repair 581 
			 Oven Repairs 93 
			 External Security Light Repairs 92 
			 Electrical Works 1,820 
			 Tap Repairs 9 
			 Fence Repairs 228 
			 Renew Taps 205 
			 Repair Cooker 125 
			 Repair Fire Alarm 102 
			 Automatic Gates Repair 70 
			 New Cooker 479 
			 New Freezer 357 
			 Decorate Breakfast Room 600 
			 Escape Lighting 674 
			 New Food Processor 169 
			 New Bathroom Mats 46 
			 Bedding and Towels 188 
			 2 Stools for Kitchen 35 
			 Glassware 224 
			 Total 7,475

Nuclear Weapons Treaties

Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 8 May 2007,  Official Report, column 67, to the hon. Member for Gower, on nuclear weapons treaties, which of the nuclear weapons reductions since 1998 have taken place as a result of multilateral disarmament negotiations.

Des Browne: The disarmament measures undertaken by the UK, which I referred to in my answer of 8 May 2007,  Official Report, column 67W, were pertinent to our obligations towards achieving the general and complete disarmament objectives of Article VI of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, a multilaterally negotiated treaty. None of the measures have taken place as a result of any separate multilateral disarmament negotiations. The UK has for many years retained only the minimum nuclear capabilities we require and as a result we have the smallest stockpile of any of the nuclear weapon states recognised under the NPT. We believe it will only be useful for us to include our deterrent in multinational negotiations once further progress has been made in reducing global nuclear stockpiles. The UK remains committed to progress in multilateral disarmament and plays a strong role in all the relevant fora.

European Policy

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he last met the Minister for Europe to co-ordinate Government policy on Europe.

John Prescott: In addition to discussions in Cabinet and Cabinet meetings, I maintain regular dialogue with ministerial colleagues in respect of my international duties.